The Tale Accordingly So...

As Part of the new initiative to make sure that "Amaretto's Tale" stays with teh new blog over at wordpress, and that I am able to do it in a more timely manner, this month will see the begining of teh Sunday Post. Every sunday, Amaretto's Tale shall receive a new grain, rather than a post every day that are clumped together at some point in time.

Thank you for your patience.

In teh meantime, today, enjoy an extra long grain for pleasure's sake to try to finish up the country of Pesok...

Grain... The Country of Pesok... The Bazarr...

Amaretto continued to run behind her aunt, trying not to run into anyone. As when they first ran from Sharazad's guards, they needed to escape and not be caught. Amaretto heard a battle cry from behind her and there was a sudden whoosh beside her head as a long piece of steel rushed past her head. At that moment, Amaretto let out a shriek and then jerked away from the blade. Amaretto heard Katherine's voice ring out in a strange staccato and then Amaretto saw the blade shimmer in the middle of the air. The man wielding the blade said something in a guttural tone that she didn't understand and the blade turned into molten metal that melted off in large gobbets.
 
Katherine grabbed Amaretto by the arm and then yelled, “Don't stop moving! They could catch you!” Amaretto whirled and continued to run after her aunt. They ran into a small hallway where they ran into a servant who held a large platter with fruits on it. Katherine threw her hands out and upset the trey almost instantly and then rushed past. The servant screamed out in terror and then huddled at the side of the hall. Amaretto pushed her way past the clattering platter and continued running.

Katherine pushed her way past several other people and motioned to Amaretto. “The door is over there!”
Amaretto jerked her body towards the door that her aunt had pointed out and hurtled herself through it. The sun poured through the cracks of the streets and ignited her vision in a nimbus of brightness. Amaretto felt her arm being grabbed and then she was rushed into the streets. Amaretto heard the yelling from behind her as the men tried to get out of the house into the street. She darted a look at Katherine who pulled her down the main thoroughfare and towards an area that seemed to be covered in large tapestries and cloths to cover the street from the sun.

“We have to keep moving,” yelled Katherine.

“What did you do to that one man's sword?” Amaretto felt breathless and her words puffed forth.

“It was a little bit of magic. I wasn't expecting it to answer so readily though. It just flowed from my lips!”

Amaretto felt a small bit of surprise. “You know magic? Why do I feel like I should have already known that?”

They ran past a stall where a man was hawking his wares. The smell of fresh bread from a large bakery was floating past and Amaretto felt her mouth water. As they rushed past it, Amaretto could fell her stomach gurgle. There was a moment where Amaretto felt the sudden urge to pull out of her aunt's grasp, but she knew that if she did that, she would more than likely be in more trouble than when she was in what she now liked to think of as "Alternate Britain".

They continued to wander through the bazaar and Amaretto was surprised by the amount of stuff that she saw. She couldn't help but listen to what the people were saying as they ran past.

"Fresh dates! Fresh figs! Fresh fruit! You want them I've got them!"

"Jewels from the other side of the sands! Precious jems and stones!"

"Come see the silks that I have here, the finest silks in all of Pesok!"

"Spices! Spices! Your freshest spices as seen all over the land!"

Amaretto was amazed at the stuff that she saw in the market. It was almost overwhelming. It was better than any of the malls that she had ever been to in her own world. She marveled at the colors and the people that swirled around them.

"Where exactly are we going?" Amaretto spoke with a breathless tone.

Katherine frowned and then said, "We are going to hide. Fist however, we have to find Tempus."

Amaretto rolled her eyes and then she said in a huffy voice with a little irritation, "The ring won't work. It's like there is a massive amount of static."

Katherine huffed. "I assume that there is somewhere where we can get a better signal. Maybe the ring works like a cell phone."

Amaretto smirked. "A magical ring that works as a cell phone? That is something that you don't see everyday."

Country of Pesok...

Amaretto blanched and looked at Katherine. “Why is she smiling like that? I thought only the bad guys smiled like that.” As she said it, she began to slowly move backwards towards the exit, or what she thought of as the exit. A bead of sweat began to appear on her forehead as she thought of all the horrible things that could be just about to happen in one moment. Sharazad took one step forwards and continued to smile.

Katherine had a pensive look on her face. One hand was slowly reaching towards Amaretto, and the other was within her pocket. Her god mother was at the ready and Amaretto was afraid of what the woman might pull out of her magical purse that she was hiding.

Sharazad raised a single hand and Amaretto turned behind her to see several men dressed in vests and baggy trousers. The silks that the clothes were made from were indeed colorful. The vests were threaded in an elegant style that had gold trim around the edges.  The sirwal that they all were wearing ended just below their knees and cinched with golden threads as well. On their feet were golden slippers that silently moved across the tiled marble floors. In each of the men’s hands was a single curved scimitar. Sharazad’s smile turned into a grim smirk.

“I did say that I need your help, you who are the daughters of the Sky Father.  I never said that you would have to be alive in order to give me that help." Sharazad's cold smile seemed to crawl over Amaretto's skin and she grimaced and began to run for the door only to remember the other men that were there at the last minute. She shrieked and tried to turn but there just wasn't enough time.

From behind her Katherine threw her hands up into the air and screamed something that sounded like a foreign language. Amaretto tried to slow down, but found that she didn't need to and gasped when she realized that her aunt had turned the strange men who were there into a set of monkeys. the monkeys shrieked and ran around the room. Sharazad shrieked in rage and Amaretto and Katherine ran into the hallway in order to escape.

Amaretto dragged down the hallway, her clothing swirling around her ankles and Katherine followed in her large harem-styled pants. Their slippered feet pounded against the marble in soft slams against the unyielding marble. They ran down a flight of stairs as soon as they found it and continued to rush their way down out of the strange house they were in. Servants quickly dodged out of their way, avoiding looking at them. It was almost surreal. As they ran past them Amaretto noticed that each one of them was a lot darker than she was. Most of them were exotic browns, tanned and light. Amaretto realized that she and her aunt were more than likely the lightest people in the building.


Katherine was not having any of it though. She muttered something under her breath and then began to yell at the people that were in front of her.


"Move! Get out of the way! Flee in terror!" Katherine's voice was a torrent of abuse and orders in glorious surround stereo vocals.


"Aunt Katherine is that really neccessary?"


Katherine paused a moment and then said, "Everything is necessary."

Country of Pesok.... Sharazad's Solar.

“So let me get this straight then,” Amaretto began. “You want us to help you to get a crown, to rule this country, that the only way to achieve it is in a race.” Amaretto looked at Sharazad with a raised eyebrow.

Sharazad nodded her head slowly as if working with a small child and this irritated Amaretto, but she did nothing. One did not correct someone else if they were in the process of venerating you like a god. Katherine reached into her pocket and pulled out a small silver flask and Amaretto frowned. She had wondered what happened to her purse, but chances were her god mother had shrunk it and fit it into her pocket. Almost as if by second thought, she passed her eyes over her aunt’s shoes and secretly grinned at herself. Very carefully, she noted that while the shoe looked like nothing, the soles of the shoes were done in a bright red. That could only mean that her aunt was currently wearing Official Christian Louboutin slippers.

As if sensing what she was thinking, Katherine slowly smiled and shifted her feet ever so carefully. Katherine looked at the woman in front of them. “So you are going to run in the Crown Chase I take it then?”

Sharazad smiled. “Of course. What else would I be doing?” The answer seemed so obvious that Amaretto felt a twinge go down her back. She wanted to reach out and say, ‘enough’, but she knew that it would not happen. This whole situation was messed up. First it was a strange world of drab whites and dark grays and a frantic cry for help that she had been suckered into. Then it was a trip to the little steam punk Britain that had never been. Now it was being stuck in a bad Disney version of the Arabian Nights. When was it going to end?


All Amaretto wanted was it to all be over. She wanted to go home, maybe perhaps slack off on her homework and watch television instead. Instead, she was being held hostage by a strange group of people who wanted her to do things for them all because of a simple gift that she had gotten when she was younger. It was madness and infuriating, and a little scary. Amaretto looked at Katherine who was trying to covertly sneak a sip from her flask on the sly. As Sharazad blinked, Katherine took a lightnign swig and then put the flask back into her pocket and made herself the perfect picture of serenity as she settles back down.

"Sharazad, I believe that you wish to win the Crown, but why?" Katherine stared intently at the woman who had called them and waited for her to answer.

Sharazad closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded her head slowly. She opened them once more and a slight smile came across her face.

“The ability to rule is not a hereditary one, but the power that comes with it is. The ability to rule is not a gift that you are expected to know; it is a duty you are expected to uphold. The last few rulers that we have had here in Pesok have been frivolous and rude and uncaring. I wish to rectify that and use the crown as it was meant to be used.”

Amaretto was surprised by the answer. She had been expecting something a little more vapid, perhaps self centric even. This woman however, was more than willing to take matters into her own hands it seemed.

Katherine continued to push however. “Why do you think you would be a better ruler than anyone else?”

“What better person to rule than someone who was originally from the streets and has now managed to make a life for themselves in this most harsh of climates?” Sharazad’s eyes were dancing with intelligence and Amaretto thought that this woman indeed had the guts to take control of a country. Though as for how long she would rule, Amaretto wasn’t sure.

Katherine smiled and then said, “Alright then. Here is the deal. The Sky-Father indeed sent us to help you out,” At this Amaretto tried to say something, but Katherine only cut her off with a wave of her hand. “We shall endeavor to do so.”

“Amaretto looked a little concerned. “We know next to nothing about this Crown chase though. We need more information.”

Sharazad smiled and said, “I have told you all that I could possibly know. What more could you want?”

Katherine smiled a wicked smile. “One favor to be determined in the future; and to be of our choosing as we wish. That is all that we are asking for in the name of the Sky-Father.”

Amaretto looked at her aunt with curiosity. There was something about what her aunt had asked that seemed a little strange. It was as if Katherine knew something that she didn’t. Amaretto was determined to find out what it was. She smiled lightly next to her aunt and then looked over at Sharazad.

“I think that we should take a look at the city before we determine how it is that she is going to win. “ Amaretto was all but bursting to get out of this small solar and see if she could contact Tempus. Since it was all but impossible to hear him within this strange woman’s house, perhaps the ring functioned like a cell phone; maybe all she needed was a place to get better reception. Katherine looked at her god-daughter with a quirked eyebrow.

“If you insist dear,” Katherine smiled and stood up from where she had been sitting and nodded towards Sharazad.

Sharazad made a polite nod back and then said, “If you wish to explore the city, then by all means, you must. Allow me to have someone show you around thought the…” Amaretto cut her off at that moment.

“That is quite all right. We are able to find our way around.” She smiled as beneficially as she could, but she was sure that the smile felt false. Katherine nodded her head as well and then began to walk towards the hallway with Amaretto in tow. Amaretto wasn’t sure, but something seemed wrong about this whole set up.

Sharazad stood up and then smiled a rather cold smile.

Country of Pesok

Sharazad looked at Amaretto and then smiled and said, "The Crown Chase. I should have realized that as servants of the Sky Father, you would not be interested in the mortal realm below. Forgive me for my presumption."

Katherine smiled as benevolently as she could and Amaretto tried to stifle a giggle. "It is alright. We have been admonished only recently for not paying attention. Surely though, you did not need our help to do this Crown Chase do you?"

Sharazad smiled only briefly and then frowned. "The Crown Chase is not necessarily needful of any help or of any divine intervention. I simply cannot participate if I do not have a coordinator to help me with the run."

Amaretto raised an eyebrow. "The run?"

Sharazad pursed her lips tightly and then said, "The Crown Chase, where we choose the new ruler. It is tradition that the crown is hidden within the tallest building in the City of Pesok and from there, we run to capture the crown. Whoever reaches the crown first is able to become the new ruler for the next five years. The previous ruler can run as well, but it is generally frowned upon."

Amaretto tried to cover the shock that had come over her at this revealing. "You mean it is not passed from generation to generation by blood?"

Sharazad laughed and then said, "No. We choose not to do that, for what if a ruler's child or progeny or heir apparent is cruel. The Crown Chase allows only those who are crafty and wise to be able to get to the Crown."

Katherine nodded her head and then said, "I see what you are referring to, but I also take it to mean that this is not just some run from start to finish. There must be traps and other such things?"

Sharazad nodded her head in enthusiasm. "Indeed there are. Last year there was a rope bridge that was only a three pieces of rope and half way through it would shake violently due to the wind. Many people did not make it across." Sharazad paused for a moment and looked downwards, and then looked back at the two 'Bright Ones' in front of her. "Surely you can help me this year. After all, no one says that it is forbidden for you to help."

Amaretto looked at her Aunt and Aunt Katherine shrugged her shoulders. "Any sign of Tempus yet?"

Amaretto shook her head. She was a little worried.

Grain... Country of Pesok

Amaretto crossed her arms across her chest and frowned at her aunt. "No. I don't think so. No hiding behind curtains and not paying attention to the people behind them. I want to know who it is that is helping us this time."

A strange voice answered her and spoke in a rather throaty voice, "And so you shall."

Amaretto turned to the sound of the voice and saw a tall woman standing there. Her skin was bronzed form many a day in the sun and was all but a golden color that sparkled in the sun. Her hair was a black tangled and curly wave that had been tied only slightly at the base of her spine to show how much there actually was in a strange and elaborate braiding technique. She too was wearing a shortened blouse in a a color almost like a plum, with pants to match as well. A shawl had been wrapped around her waist and then tied off to the end of her hands where large bangles clinked together in golden obscurity. Large rings of gold dangled from her ears and from them, several small red gemstones and in between it all, a single black onyx stone.

The woman's eyes were intense however and were a deep shade of indigo. This shade was hardly common from where Amaretto came from and as she stared at the woman's eyes, she also noticed that there were flecks of red in them as well. The woman smiled and then said, "Illustrious omens that you fell out of the sky when you did. I assume that you are here to answer my prayers? I know that I prayed to the Sky, but to have you here so soon makes me very happy."

Amaretto stared at the woman and tried to hide the confusion on her face. Her aunt however, did nothing of the sort, she raised her chin high and then said. "Even if we deign to answer your questions, we have still not been told as to what we have been summoned for." Katherine looked over at Amaretto and winked and then looked back imperiously at the woman in front of them.

The woman seemed taken aback and then said, "Forgive me Bright Ones. I did not mean to offend. Blessings of the Bright upon thee and allow me to introduce myself as Sharazad. I have called up into the heavens and Skies for help in my bid this week."

Amaretto broke in a that moment. "Your bid?" The questioning tone in her voice was made to sound imperious too, almost like her aunt's, and Katherine smiled just slightly.

Sharazad smiled and then said, "I am hoping that you are here to help me in becoming the next queen of Pesok."

Amaretto looked at Sharazad who had a twinkle in her eye. Almost like a robot, she allowed her head to spin slowly and face her aunt and she could feel the twitch in the left corner of her left eye. "Aunt Katherine," she said in as sickeningly sweet a voice as she could manage, "Whatever does she mean?"

After she had said it, she watched her aunt's face very closely. She felt almost outraged when she was graced with her aunt's surprise that was all over her face. Katherine looked appalled and then said, "I have no idea what you are referring to. I really must say that I had no idea of where we would be going less, mush less what the Sky Father would require of us. So you think I could have chosen this path for us?"

Amaretto was shocked and surprised at what her aunt had said. Not once had she ever had she heard her aunt talk like this. However, she had never before been in a place that seemed to have more sand than the beach. This was ridiculous. She frowned and then went over the facts in her head. It was only a few moments before she realized that her aunt knew where they were and was trying to play the part. She smacked herself internally and vowed to trust her aunt a little more.

Grain... Country of Pesok...

Amaretto let herself be led from the rooftop, down a flight of stone steps that deposited them all into a long hallway. The hallway was stone as well, but many archways had been cut into the call, showing Amaretto that she was at least four stories up. She looked out the massive stone arches and looked out to a sprawling city below her. A metropolis unlike any she had ever seen before. hundreds of thousands of buildings were everywhere. Adobe white walls glistened in the hot and sweltering sun. Domes of gold and other materials blazed like beacons and the sounds of people could be heard everywhere. It was a sprawling city and just at the edge of the city, Amaretto could see large white walls. Beyond the walls, she saw nothing but sand.

Sand stretched from beyond the walls all the way to the line of the horizon. She stopped and could not help but stare. She looked to her aunt and Katherine slowly nodded. "I do think there are other places here, but not for a very far off ways. This country only has the once city and the next closest city is weeks away, if not months through the sands."

Amaretto turned back around to look once again over the sprawling city and shook her head. "It looks like something out of the Arabian Nights," she whispered softly.

Katherine nodded. "It very well could be. However, I still think you will thank me for the bath you are about to receive."

Amaretto perked up at that. "I think I would like that, if only to stop sweating for a moment." She smiled and Katherine smiled back as she grabbed her hand and continued to lead her down the hallway. Up ahead of them , Isarra had stopped and looked back at them without any expression on her face. A coolness that Amaretto would expect from a monk was what she was seeing. Amaretto thought for a moment and then realized that Isarra was probably a servant, and the question came to her of whose she could be, but before she could ask, Katherine whisked her into the room that Isarra was standing outside of at the moment. As soon as she did, she almost gasped in amazement.

The whole room was circular all the way around and had been made out of large slabs of marble of three different kinds. Black, white, and green , the whole of the room was pillared and centered around a small pool which was at least waist high on Amaretto. The large pool had to be almost six feet in diameter and above it, a large canopy had been erected over the top of the bath. Steam rolled off the top of the bath and Amaretto looked at it with eyes that seemed to almost crave the water.

At that moment she saw several women dressed as skimpily as possible and then she felt hands all over herself and then the dress that she had been wearing was slowly taken off, button for button till all she had left on was her skin. The heat was bearable by that time, but there was nothing to be said for the sweat that immediately began to bead on her skin. Amaretto soon found herself being led to the pool and immersed with gentle care. The half nude women who were around her began massaging and needing her skin with in their powerful hands and soon, Amaretto felt like she was in heaven. They gently washed her hair and caressed her skin with soft oils. It was almost a good half hour before she was even let go out of the tub.


While she was being washed, her aunt chattered idly about this and that, the need for a colorful wardrobe, the fifteen uses of a hairbrush in self defense, and also the ingenious uses of beautification products in the modern woman. Even through out all of that nattering however, Amaretto did catch her aunt Katherine talking about odd things like the joys of proper running shoes, the uses of peroxide as a chemical accelerate... it made Amaretto think that her aunt was more than a little crazy.

The bath continued on however, without so mush as a bent fingernail. After the women were done bathing her, they sprayed her with perfumed oils that Amaretto swore smelled like jasmine and lilacs. She was a little surprised that they would have such flowers, but she realized that it would have had to come from trading with someone. That meant there had to be someone else in the world. That was not something that needed to be discussed at the moment as Amaretto was soon dressed in a costume much akin to her aunts, only hers were in deep yellows that made her a little giddy. They also made her eyes swim a little. She was also draped with a head covering that was made out of cream colored silk that was see through and had it draped in place like a veil and two long combs to trap it and keep it in place.

Her aunt beamed and then smiled once more at her and pointed to her new costume. "It looks stunning on you."

Amaretto blushed just a little and then nodded to the surroundings. "Pesok? Don't you mean "Kingdom of perpetual beach? Have they ever even heard of the ocean here?"

"Oh come now Amaretto, we know we are in the right place. We just have to somehow make contact with Tempus."

"That may be so, but who the are these people? They are treating us as if we are royalty?" At the mention of this, Amaretto's voice went from panicked to incredulous.

Katherine smiled. "We did fall from the sky you know," she said wryly.

"Through no fault of our own that was!" At that Amaretto expressed a gasp. "Listen to me! I sound like one of the people from New Machina!" The last came out a hiss.

Katherine chuckled. "Perhaps Johanna had more of an effect on you than you thought?"

Amaretto glared at her aunt for a moment. "I still think this whole idea was a set up."

"Perhaps it was, but I am determined that at some point, you will enjoy yourself. As for the treating us like royalty, that is impossible, because we fell from the sky, we are simply good omens. Now, if you would kindly tell me what happened to the ring, perhaps we can get Tempus."

Amaretto sighed. "We can't get to Tempus. All i get is static."

Katherine frowned and then shook her head. "That is not good at all. Who knows what will happen next without the proper knowledge..." she trailed off for a moment and continued to look perplexed.

"You still didn't answer my question," Amaretto said.

Katherine answered rather distractedly. "What question was that?"

"How was all of this possible? This doesn't belong to you, so who does it belong to."

Katherine smiled again and this time, her smile seemed a little off. "Oh you shall see."

Grain... Country of Pesok (in which Amaretto comes to terms with Harem Pants... )

The whirling lights continued on as if nothing else had been. It was as if nothing else had ever been there. The lights swirled, and the songs where all that was supposed to be there. She was not sure what it was that her name was at that moment, but it was very important to her. The world that was when there was another sounds. A point in the center was a blackness, and the blackness slowly began to get larger an then, it took over everything...

...Amaretto fell through the sky and the first thing that she saw was sand. Then she felt the ground hit her with a forceful thunk. Amaretto looked up and then saw that the sky was filled with a large sun of boiling hot mass. The sun baked the area all around and the heat felt stifling. Amaretto rolled over onto her back and then sat up. She coughed and then looked up. Blinking her eyes, she saw her aunt standing there in front of her with another woman. Katherine had her hair flying behind her in a rather brusque wind. Her aunt took a moment to brush her hair away from her face and smiled at her.

"Well then. I think that we are all here aren't we?" Katherine looked at the next woman and then nodded. The other woman smiled and simply nodded.

Amaretto looked at her aunt and then said, "Wait, where are your clothes?"

Katherine was dressed in a rather bilious blouse made of blue silk. That was when she noticed the pants. There was a pair of pants that her aunt was wearing that was a little like a pair of parachutes. They too were blue and the moment she looked at them she realized that her aunt looked a little ridiculous and out of a really bad Disney cartoon. That was when it hit her.

"Oh my god. Those are harem pants. Why are you wearing harem pants?"

There was a moment while Katherine looked at her and then said, "At least call them by their original name. They are to be called sharovary." Katherine's voice was a little annoyed, but she didn't look at it.

Amaretto raised an eyebrow and then looked at herself. "Wait a minute, you might have the awesome clothes, but why am I still in these?" Amaretto motioned to her own clothing and then motioned to her aunt's. Katherine looked at her own fairly breezy outfit and then seemed to remember that Amaretto was still in her dress from the Second Great British Empire.

"Oh goodness, I forgot., You must be baking to death in all of that. Here, hold on just a moment, let me have Isarra get you something to wear." Katherine clapped her hands and the other woman mad a deep bow and then hurried off. Katherine moved the short distance between her and her god-daughter and then smiled at Amaretto.

"Sorry about that. I forgot for a moment how hot the country we are in is. we are in Pesok. I believe it means sand. Even still, it's almost midday. I hope you don't bake to death."

"It is rather hot," Amaretto agreed to glumly. "Where are we?"

Katherine shrugged. "From what I have been able to gather we are in the county of Sand. Here they call it Pesok, but it still is nothing more than just desert it seems. On the other hand, I have still not been able to make contact with Tempus. It seems as if he has been cut off."

Amaretto looked at her finger and noticed that the pearl ring was still there. "Do you think that it could work?" She lifted it up to the sky and then watched it as it sparkled in the sun. She brought it back down to her lips and then said, "Tempus can you hear me?"

All that she heard in her mind was a faint sort of static that seemed to encompass all she said. She looked to her aunt and then shook her head. "I can't seem to reach him. It's like it's just static there, nothing else."

Katherine pursed her lips and then nodded her head. "I thought as much. I wasn't sure, but I figured that the magick that Johanna released a the end might have affected the bonds between the rings and everything else. I still have to admit though, there are a few things I would like to question him about. For example, I want to know what the next coordinate is supposed to look like."

Amaretto grimaced. She could feel the heat now. It was slowly creeping into her skin and filling the whole of her body. She could feel the beads of sweat on her brow. The sun was high in the sky and it was almost unbearable. Almost before she could op[en her mouth to complain about it though, Isarra came back. She bowed in her green and black silks before the both of them before she spoke.

"I have made the arrangements necessary for you."

Katherine smiled and then said, "Thank you Isarra." She looked at Amaretto and then said, "Well, let's get you ready then shall we?"

Amaretto simply stared at her aunt before allowing herself to be dragged off the roof she was on.

Grain... Great Kingdome of New Machina...

Amaretto looked at the others who were there with her and then shook her head. "Everyone deserves a happy ending Tempus."



Amaretto reached forwards for the Stone of Communication. Katherine looked as if she was about to say something and then the world seemed to flash. Red hues filled the room and Amaretto felt a stirring at her breast. Looking down she noticed that the Hourglass around her neck seemed to glow with an unearthly light and then hum as it slowly began to spin. Amaretto could have sworn that she had never before seen this happen. At the top of the hourglass, a small red light appeared and in the back of her mind, Amaretto could have sworn that she heard a woman's voice in the back of her head. She strained to hear what the voice had said, but there was nothing that she could hear at first. The light from the top of her hourglass grew steadily brighter.

Katherine covered her eyes and cursed and even her curse was suddenly cut off by a large wail that came from all around them. Tempus looked around with wild eyes.

"The null zone! It's collapsing!"

Amaretto whirled to look at Tempus. "What do you mean it's..."

Amaretto was cut off however when the whole area suddenly lurched back to life. The wail was from Mother Chime. She was actually screaming. There was a screech from Johanna as she threw another spell at Mother Chime. The world seemed to take on an unnaturally red hue at that moment. Alice turned for a second and then threw one of her guns up in the air. Amaretto didn't seem to understand why but her eyes were drawn to the gun as it arced up in the air.

Johanna spun around and threw her hand up in the air and an arc of lightning seemed to leap from her fingertips. The gun exploded in midair and Mother Chime was forced to turn her eyes away. Amaretto turned her own eyes away from the shock and then there was a jerking from her own arm and she felt something cool beneath her hand. It felt rather large and the thing under her hand felt like stone. Her eyes fluttered open rather quickly and that was when she realized that she was next to the Queen and the object in her hand was indeed the Stone of Communication.

The Stone flashed out and the whole world twisted. The hourglass flashed with red light as well and there was a humming sound as the world continued to twist. Mother Chime screamed, and there was a large sucking sound as it seemed as if all the sound in the room was sucked out. Amaretto tried to say something but she felt the words ripped out of her mouth. There was almost a moment where she thought that her breath was being pulled straight from her throat.

Behind them, she heard a chime, and as she turned, she saw something that she was not expecting. A Whirl of color as the world twisted and Amaretto saw what she was hoping would not come. A blur of light and sound appeared as a whirling vortex of parallax sprang to life.

Katherine turned to Amaretto and yelled out over the sound of the whirling vortex. "Amaretto we have to get out of here!"

"What about the others?"

Alice turned around, "We will soon have what we are coming for!" There was a faint smile that played across her lips. "Amaretto, oddly enough, you have given us courage to fight against something that we were not sure that we could. You will come back someday Amaretto, and you will see that we are better for it!"

Johanna turned and smiled as well as she continued to chant and Alice said, "I think Johanna would agree. Her emotions are coming back. Please Amaretto, go and bee free for it. We will not fault you at all. Some people will never get to experience what you are doing. And for heaven's sakes; don't let anything get you down! You have an indomitable spirit. Let it grow!"

Katherine looked at the whirling vortex and then looked back at Amaretto in alarm. "Amaretto!"

Amaretto looked back and then saw that her aunt was being engulfed by the whirling lights and sounds. Somewhere, Amaretto thought that she could hear singing and the music seemed even brighter for it. Amaretto reached out and tried to grab for her aunt's hand. The whiteness of the vortex spun with intense light that was slowly engulfing her aunt. "Aunt Katherine!"

Amaretto tried once more to grasp her aunt's hand and then realized that the whiteness was covering her forearm.

"No! I'm not done yet! I have to help!" She reached out and tried to run towards Alice and Johanna. Her feet however where hopelessly tangled in the white frost and light that was pouring through the air like molasses. Amaretto struggled with herself against the supposed invader and capture. Alice simply just smiled.

"Don't struggle Amaretto." Amaretto reached out again and then realized that she still clutched the stone in her hands. The light was almost completely covering her again and she bit her lip and then threw the stone with all the force that she could at Johanna. Johanna's hand flew out and caught the stone as it hurtled itself through the air. Mother Chime screamed as the Queen quietly sobbed to herself.

"Give me the stone you miserable heretic! Science will win!"

Johanna's eyes glowed a bright blue and flashed with a brilliance of white and Amaretto saw hundreds of thousands of colors pour from her sockets. Johanna looked up and the light streamed forth from her eyes and her mouth opened and soon, it was pouring out of her like a giant cloak of brilliance. Mother chime raised her hands and arms upwards to cover her face and from the brilliance of the lights stepped several forms. They were cloaked in white robes and held long swords that poured the same radiance and brilliance as well as a preternatural blue fire.

Alice looked on in awe and in a low whisper said, "Angels of Mercy and Light..."

Johanna's eyes still glowed with the strange light, but as she looked down once more at Mother Chime, Amaretto could see nothing of mercy in them, but knew the look that remained, filled with the strange light, was what she would soon call justice. Amaretto however was also afraid that one would call it vengeance. The angels raised their flaming blue swords and then rushed straight towards Mother Chime. There was a shriek and a crunch of metal against metal as the four flaming swords pierced Mother Chime's body in four cardinal directions.

Amaretto watched with satisfaction as Mother Chime slumped over unmoving. The white light had slowly been moving up and trying to encompass all of Amaretto at just after she saw Mother Chime slump over, the light covered her eyes and Amaretto felt the sensation of falling without falling.

The world was filled with the sensation of collapsing through the air and rising as the same time. Amaretto felt pulled and compressed and the air was filled with lights and sensations that played over her skin in a cacophony of sounds. Amaretto could taste the voices as they sang their ethereal song as she continued to rise through the sounds and light. Falling as she was, she wasn't sure if the world around her was moving or she was moving at the incredibly fast pace that she was.

"Aunt Katherine? Where are you?" Amaretto's voice fragmented ito a thousand shards and flew away in every which direction that she was not, and at the same time, filled the air and ceased to exist. Amaretto was getting rather dizzy and then, the whole world exploded into thousands of shimmering colors and blackness engulfed everything.

Grain... Null-time Zone...

Amaretto tried to feel something, perhaps a little bit of remorse and regret, but found that she could dredge up neither emotion. Looking up, she saw her aunt had been frozen in time as well. Her parasol had been tented outwards and rigid spikes and small blades had come out of the parasol's edges. They were so small, that Amaretto would not have noticed them at all, if not for the way her aunt was positioned on the floor. Her mouth was open in a terrible scream of defiance, or at least half of one, and her eyes were filled with righteous indignation, or at least Amaretto hoped that was what it was full of.


Right above Katherine though was a large IronMan himself, poised in the middle of the air as if to crush Katherine with his whole body. Amaretto turned to Tempus. "Tempus, could you please let her go? She has to travel with me!" Tempus simply nodded his head and smiled at Amaretto.

Almost instantly, the yelling came back from Katherine. She had been in full swing when she had stopped, so she continued on her follow-through. There was a sound of a metallic clang and then the parasol seemed to slice through the IronMan at full speed as Katherine screamed at the top of her lungs. Afterwards, Katherine moved into a protective stance, but only then noticed that the IronMan didn't move from his position in the air. Amaretto marveled at how it seemed to stay afloat.

Tempus looked positively mad. "That is going to leave a mark on the timeline for sure. Can't you ever watch yourself and what you are doing?"

Katherine shrugged her shoulders and frowned. "What do I have to worry about. I have you to deal with. I could care less about the timeline."

Tempus' incorporeal form frowned. "Just because you are..." he was cut of by an imperious wave of Katherine's hand.

"I don't want to know Tempus. What is the deal with the Null-time zone?"

"We found the Stone. It has the first coordinate. I figured that I would help you get the first one and then we shall see what happens next."

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "What happens next? You mean you don't know?"

Tempus shook his head. "No that's not what I mean. I don't know where the next coordinate is, much less weather you will be transported immediately or if you will have to come back to the room behind the watch shop to have me set the Hourglass off; I just don't know."

Amaretto looked at the stone that was still within the Queen's grasp. "If I take that, and we get the coordinate, what happens to them?"

"Who are you talking about Ama?" Her aunt seemed a little concerned.

Amaretto made a vague gesture around the room. "I mean all of them. Especially Alice and Johanna. What happens to them?"


Katherine looked at them and walked over to where Johanna had her right arm spread out, her fingers spread as well as if throwing a large web of kinetic energy; thought it didn't help that it looked like there were blue strings attached to her fingers at that moment. "Well, it looks like they could possibly win. Once we take the outlying magic from the Stone of Communication, they might not have to worry about anything else. Mother Chime's magic, though she calls it science, is actually a really small base extrapolation of normal magic."


Amaretto blinked. "Could you say that in simple terms?"


Katherine blinked as if in non comprehension and then said in a rather bland tone, "Once we jump, Mother Chime's magic won't work."


"What about Johanna's though?"


Katherine snorted. "Her magic is what is powering Mother Chime's magic in the first place. The Stone of Communication is acting as a siphon. That is what Mother Chime is tapping into to make sure the Queen can transfer bodies."


Amaretto frowned and looked at her aunt with thoughtful eyes. "So there is no scientific way for her to switch bodies?"


Tempus answered her in a terse voice. "Not without the magical catalyst to begin the transformation. Entirely too much energy is needed to do the process, and as you can see, no lightning of any sort is nearby, and the only way to do something like you want is to use a huge amount of energy." Katherine nodded apologetically with Tempus. Amaretto felt helpless. She didn't necessarily want to obstruct the Queen, but she didn't necessarily want the Queen to destroy everything either.

"So then what can we do?"

Tempus shook his head. "Not everyone can have a happy ending Amaretto."

Amaretto snarled. "Everyone can, you just don't want them to."

Grain... Null-Timed Space...

"Amaretto, please open your eyes. You are starting to make me feel a little nervous."


Amaretto, prompted by the voice opened her eyes and looked around hurriedly. All she had remembered from a moment before was saying the strange words that Tempus had given her and the whole world seeming to compress and then shudder with darkness. What she had thought of as the world going black and dark was really her closing her eyes really tight. She felt a little foolish. However, what she noticed next made her feel a little wary. The Queen was in front of her, clutching her other body; new holding onto old as a child does a plaything or doll that they do not want to let go of. Amaretto was going to say something, but she chose against it. The Queen however, was completely frozen.


Something had stopped her dead in her tracks.


A panic began to form in the back of Amaretto's head, but she refused to let it take over her. She was in a strange place, that was true, but she did know how to revive someone. The only problem here was that Amaretto could see that the Queen had been frozen in a moment of screaming. She looked so fascinatingly horrid to Amaretto; her mouth wide open to catch whatever may be thrown in, her eyes slanted in a foul grimace and menacingly slit eyes. The pupils were perpetually dilated, not that Amaretto was sure that they should be.



Amaretto looked behind her where the others were. Alice was in the middle of pulling the trigger on her gun, a rather large and menacing IronMan stood in front of her and looked almost as if he was going to eat her head off. His mouth was gaping wide and he had what looked to be spinning blades on the inside of his mouth in a triangular pattern. The only thing about it was that there was no sound there, the blades weren't even spinning. And the IronMan was paused in a leap in midair. Amaretto frantically looked about the room and noticed that everything in the room had stopped. She put a hand up to her neck and felt the coolness of the hourglass there. She was sure she hadn't used it, but could she have made it work in the heat of the moment?


She looked at the ground and finally noticed the floor was different. All along the entirety of the floor was a large clock that seemed to have no hands, just the face with large bold roman numerals. Amaretto looked around in wonder and then she heard a chuckle. She whirled around and saw a shadowy figure there. A few moment's latter she put her hands on her hips when she realized who it was.


"Tempus! What just happened here?"


Tempus moved forwards and Amaretto noticed that he had a almost shadowy corporeality to himself. Amaretto narrowed her eyes, her eyebrows knitting together. "Why are you so transparent?"


Tempus shook his head and in his British accent said, "I'm not really here. This is a phantasm that is generated by the space we are currently occupying."


Amaretto looked around. "The space we are occupying? What's that supposed to mean?"


Tempus smiled and then said, "It means that I have taken this moment in time, just a minute, and compressed it into a second, and then have it playing over and over again in a re-looped procession so it appears as if time has stopped, when in reality, it is going to feel like a massive dejavu headache to all who are in it when they get out. "


Amaretto raised an eyebrow and then giggled slightly. "So they will feel a little like they were in a major glitch in the..."


Tempus put up a hand to stop her. "Please, don't bring that movie up. It gives me a headache. So many inconsistency with time and the space fluctuations. I had people trying to prove it real for months and the amount of hiccups in the systems; let's just say that the clocks were never the same. I almost lost eighty-six hours!"

Amaretto couldn't help but smile. Tempus really did sound distraught over it. "So Tempus, what's with this frozen time?"

Tempus smiled slightly and then said, "It is actually not frozen. It has been looped so that I can speak with you and help set up the next jump. You've found the first coordinate. As soon as you seperate it from the stone, you will be able to jump instantaneously."

Amaretto cocked her head to the side for a second as she listened to Tempus talk. As soon as he said the last part, her eyes widened. "What do you mean we will jump instantly?"

Tempus' mouth twitched for a second and he shrugged. "That is exactly what I mean. The moment the coordinate takes root in the hourglass, you will be thrust to the next place where the coordinate is. I can't control it, that is just the way that it works."

Amaretto looked sorrowfully at Johanna and Alice. Was this to mean that she was going to be abandoning them?

Grain... Cloister of Science...

The lines that etched themselves across the floor were swirling with energy and various forms of magics that were boundlessly whirling within the area. There was no two doubts about it, they were now using magic. Amaretto was not all that surprised that Alice and Johanna knew it, but to think that the strange woman who seemed to be all about science and its uses and how they seemed far more infinite in their understanding; she was chanting mystical words that were a mantra for a very powerful magic that was building up into a cacophony of pressure. Amaretto felt her head swim as thin veils appeared over both Johanna and Mother Chime.

Her sprinting towards the original stone that was there was not going as well as she hoped. An IronMan swung out at her, and all but barely missed severing her clean in two with a rip-bladed saw for a hand. Dense smoke roiled around the ground, clutching at everything like a greedy child given free reign in a candy shop. As Mother Chime continued to chant, the smoke began to take a more solid shape along the ground. Amaretto tried to dodge another IronMan, his arms outstretched as if to grab her and never let go, and she hear the familiar bang of Alice's gun as a blast of ray energies tore through him The IronMan actually looked surprised.

Amaretto dodged again and felt the smoke on the ground whirling in what appeared to be small hands grasping at the hemlines of her dress. She hated her aunt for making her wear it, but she could not have guessed that wearing jeans instead of a crinoline would have been such a great idea. She called out in her mind, "Tempus! I need you now!"

Almost as if exploding in her head, she heard an amount of static and then something that sounded like an old radio tuning in her head. Am... ret... re yo... okay?" Then it snapped into place and she could hear Tempus calling for her.

"Amaretto can you hear me?"

Amaretto rolled her eyes"I can hear you just fine then Tempus. It's almost like you are screaming in my ear... oh wait!"

Amaretto heard Tempus snort. "You don't have to be so rude about it..."

"Not to be rude now, but I need a little help here, I'm almost to the gem, but I can't get to it, Mother Chime is just a little too powerful!" Amaretto tried to hide the panic from her voice, but it might have been too late to do so. At that moment, she could have sworn that she heard Tempus smile.

"Are you within fifty feet at least?"

Amaretto did a quick look and then nodded her head. Then almost as if sensing her silliness she responded in the affirmative. She should have realized sooner that there was no way Tempus could see her

"I guess you could make it that way then. Prepare yourself..."

Amaretto ducked as another IronMan reached out to grasp at her from the middle of the smoke. "Tempus!" She shrieked as another IronMan threw himself at her. She put her hands up as if to shield herself. She closed her eyes and braced for impact and then heard a loud shrieking of metal and opened her eyes tentatively. Her aunt stood there with her parasol and had it pointed directly at the IronMan that was aiming itself at her. Her eyes were thin glittering slits.

"Hurry Amaretto! We don't have time!"

Amaretto scrambled to her feet and then leaped towards the fourposter bed. The Queen who was on the bed shrieked and grabbed her second body in panic. Amaretto heard something that sounded like Mother Chime was screaming at her. Tempus yelled at her in her head.

"Grab the Stone!"

Amaretto panicked when at first all she could see was the Queen and the multitude of tubes that were spread across the bed, connecting both of her bodies. The whole world was spinning so fast and she wasn't quite sure what it was that she was supposed to be doing. All around the room, the clash of Magic and Science clashed between the rest of the room. She allowed her eyes to stray for a moment and saw her aunt Katherine beating an IronMan with her parasol and then screeching in a strange language that sounded like it was European.

Alice was pointing her gun at various IronMen as well, shooting shots from the strange ray gun that she held. Her back was aglow with strange blue light and symbols of red runes were pouring off her back as Johanna, who was chanting and weaving her hands animatedly at Mother Chime, who was also chanting. Mother Chime's voice however, sounded like someone was fast-forwarding a video tape. Amaretto frowned and began searching the bed again and then found what she was looking for. She gripped the stone and screamed out at the top of her lungs what Tempus had wanted her to say:

"Thunderous Clouds of Times gone past,
Running veins of Theory's relative light,
Cursed Light; Point of Heart,
Access Granted, Cease Function!"

The first thing that Amaretto thought was that it didn't rhyme. The next thing that she thought was what was that loud chiming she was hearing. The next thing she knew, the whole world turned upside-down, inside out, and then completely black...

Grain... Cloister of Science

The entirety of the room was tense and Amaretto was not sure what was going to happen next. The queen sat on the bed, old body and the Stone of Communication clutched within the hands and arms of the new body. A frown creased her lips and the furrow in her forehead spoke volumes more of her fright than of her concern. Even still, Amaretto was sure that the queen was more concerned about her new body than the older one. The gleaming metallic floors seemed to have no effect on the woman who had only a few minutes ago, been crowing about cheating death.

Amaretto looked back towards the door where the IronMen were all standing ready to attack as Mother chime had ordered them. Their capes should have gotten in the way of where they were standing, with Mother Chime off to their left hand side pointing at the interlopers in her kingdom.

Amaretto wanted to move towards the others who were there, but she as blocked off by Johanna and Alice, who were both standing in front of her. Johanna had a murderous look in her eyes. There was no way around it; Amaretto was more than sure that they would not make it out of here without at least some casualty. Alice took another step forwards and then shrugged her coat off of her shoulders. It fell to the floor with a thunk that Amaretto thought made it sound weighted. She looked up and noticed that Alice had on a thin blouse that was mostly see through, but something seemed to writhe underneath the surface of the thin translucent cotton. Something that seemed to be made of blue and trace itself all over her skin.

Katherine hissed in anticipation. "Those are brands! They are considered illegal here in the Empire."

Amaretto's eyes widened and she looked back at Alice with a whole new level of clarity. Johanna reached forward to the center of Alice's back and there was a sort of chie sound that seemed to light up the entire area and Amaretto looked around to see if she could determine where it was coming from. At that moment, all hell broke loose.

An IronMan jerked his body forward towards the small group while the Queen screamed out in fright. Mother Chime jerked her whole body backwards, not fluidly and gracefully like she had shown before, but almost like a puppet who had it's strings pulled too hard. She stood in front of the bed, her arms outspread as if to protect the queen. The IronMan had no such compunction however. His left arm was thrust forwards and almost too late, Amaretto saw that instead of a hand, he had a rather large two pronged metal attachment that spit sparks. Amaretto was almost reminded of a rather large stun gun.

Amaretto screamed as the arm lashed upwards towards Alice who seemed to just be standing there with her guns at the ready, with Johanna still standing behind her. Johanna's right hand raised just a little bit from her waist line and Alice's skin seemed to glow. There was a jagged sparking in the air almost like a bolt of lightning that seemed to leap off of Alice's skin and there was a blur in the air just in front of the IronMan. Amaretto blinked and the next thing she saw as her eyes opened up once more was the IronMan flinging itself across the room.

In the opposite direction. Alice had a grimace on her face and Johanna seemed to be a little amused.

A second IronMan threw himself forwards towards the pair. The same blur in her sight and the bolt of light slammed into him and soon, another dodged forwards with two others behind him. The one in the front had a large bronzed sword that he had at the ready on his side. As he came closer he thrust it forwards, Alice pulled up her right arm and aimed a gun at him and shot a bullet. the gun blazed forth like a flower with bright orange flames before the bullet blasted its way through the IronMan's skull. There was a dull crack and shatter as the second IronMan jerked his body forwards and then threw his jaw forwards as if to catch them off guard and bite them into two pieces. Johanna tried to strike out, but suddenly remembered that she had no rapier anymore. She frantically flailed and Alice jerked herself backwards in order to shot the IronMan again. The gun clicked. The third Iron Man had flown under the radar. While his fellows had leaped through the air in order to catch the ones that Mother Chime wanted he had crept low to the ground.

His hand ratcheted out and gripped firmly of Alice's leg and yanked at her. She fell downwards to the ground, a stray shot from her pistol flying out at the world around her at random. There was a shriek and a crash and Amaretto turned to look at the Queen. Part of the four poster bed had been blown away. At this, Katherine licked her lips and looked at Amaretto. "That was a little dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Amaretto hissed at her aunt in indignation. "We are so going to get killed here!"

Katherine shook her head. "Not without a little dust of help. Use the glass."

Amaretto's eyes bulged. "We can't do that!"

"Then use our damned ring! That's what Tempus gave it to you for right?" Amaretto's thoughts were jarred by her aunt's harsh words and she suddenly realized just how close she was to the Stone. She made a dash across the room as quick as she could. She heard Johanna muttering under her breath and soon the whole floor began to glow with unnatural lines. Mother Chime seemed to sense what was going on and began a chant of her own, red lines crossing Johanna's blue. Amaretto hoped that nothing else would explode.

Break Time

This month, Amaretto's Tale is going on hiatus. Just for this month due to classes and an ever changing work schedule. Amaretto and her tale will return in May.

~Sean

Grain... Cloister of Science...

Katherine's eyes flared in annoyance. "I know that you are only a high school girl, but please, do you really think those words were necessary?"

Amaretto blinked in a rather confused way and could feel her cheeks heating up as anger slowly encompassed her being. "The strange metal woman wants to kill us and your concerned about me saying a bad word?"

Katherine made a moue with her lips and then frowned in consternation. It was quite obvious that she was looking displeased, but Amaretto thought it was most certainly about the wrong thing.

"Just because we are doing this doesn't mean that I have to enjoy it." Katherine frowned. "You don't have to enjoy it, but you have to play within the rules of the world that you are in." Mother Chime looked at all the women and snarled.

Alice shook her head. "I knew that something was going on, but I didn't know what was actually happening."

Johanna snarled. "You stole the Stone from us." She reached for her sword, but it was not there. Amaretto remembered how Johanna had stabbed a large IronMan with it and almost destroyed the rapier that she had. The Queen was decidedly confused.

"I swear, I did not know! I merely got it from one of the scientists. They said that it would help with the cultivation of the animus transfers!" The Queen's voice was a little high-pitched and she looked truly worried.

Johanna all but snarled her response. "I cannot believe that you stole from us!"

Mother Chime was about to say something when Alice suddenly shouted. "No Johanna! Don't do it!" Katherine sputtered and then grabbed Amaretto and tried to drag her back. Amaretto tried to say something of her own, but she was cut off by a strange sound. There was a tremor in the ground and Johanna took a step forwards.

The wood floors that appeared to be a strange cherry suddenly reacted to the tremor. Bit by bit, the ground heaved it's wood paneling from the ground and heaved itself upwards, atomizing as it lifted itself from its bonds. As the paneling atomized only a fraction from where it had originally lain, metal surfaces revealed themselves underneath. Amaretto felt the ground and then looked down as the floor atomized beneath her her feet.

Amaretto spoke in an awed voice. "What is going on here?"

Katherine pointed to Johanna and said, "I think she is channeling the powers of the Stone, but I don't know what is happening!"

Amaretto sputtered in indignation, her eyes growing wide, "You don't know what is happening? Aren't you the one who has magic flowing through her veins as a fairy? As my Godmother, I demand you do something!"

Katherine sighed with an explosive force that made Amaretto think that she was about to rip her head off with a screaming howl. Instead, Katherine pointed to the Stone that was still within the Queen's grasp. The stone was glowing a strange red color and the Queen's old body was starting to shake a little in small jerks. "The stone is linking two separate powers at the same time and is confused as to which power it should be following. You and I both need that stone to get the coordinate that Tempus needs. At the same time, the Queen needs it to complete her Transfer from one body to the other, while in the same vein, trying to answer the call that Johanna is pursuing it to do as well."

Amaretto thought for a moment and then said, "So we need that stone, but, we have to figure out who will wind up with it in the end?"

Before her aunt could answer her, Mother Chime leaned her head back and cackled. "Those who come to the Cloister in faith will see what cold hard science has to offer! I will not allow you to go traipsing out there until my experiment is complete! Guards!" Amaretto said a string of filthy words that her Aunt had the audacity to look shocked about. Amaretto distinctly remembered as a child learning those self same words from her Aunt.

"Damn it aunt Katherine! Why did you have to bring me here!" There was a terseness in Amaretto's voice that sounded like the razor sharpness of a knife.

Katherine shook her head in a rather unreal response. "We can worry about our travels and their failures later. At the moment, I would be more concerned about Johanna."

The Floor shook for a second and the terrified Queen jumped back onto the bed where her body lay, clutching at the frail woman as if to protect it. Johanna lifted a finger and pointed it at Mother Chime. "You will pay for what you did."

Mother Chime's face twisted into a scowl and then a sneer of contempt. "Do you really think that you will make me pay for crimes I did not commit?" The contempt dripped from her voice like venom from a snake. Her eyes held a fierce light in her eyes. Amaretto could see that the woman was viciously inclined for some reason.

At that moment, the familiar clanking of iron against the floor and steam hissing was to be heard just outside the door. The doors flung wide open, and Amaretto didn't seem to remember who had closed them in the first place. As they did so, several IronMen in red cloaks walked through the door of the room with long metal protrusions on their arms all buzzing with the static hum of electricity. Sparks flew as one of them hit the door with his arm and electric blue skittered across the metal protrusions. Amaretto was sure it was supposed to be a scare tactic, and she was more than sure that it was working at least against her. She didn't want to appear weak, but then again, she would have preferred a History Final in school on history she had never known about, than being a part of an alternate history.

Mother Chime crowed in defiance. Not a single one of them shall be left! Kill them all!"

Johanna frowned and at that moment, Alice stepped forwards. "Johanna," she said in a light voice, "I cannot let you do this alone. I shall allow you to use the seal." She took a step forwards before Amaretto could say anything. She pulled one of her guns and then shot the first IronMan that was coming close. She frowned at Mother Chime and then pulled her second gun and pointed it at the woman.

A thin sheen of wetness covered Mother Chime's forehead for a moment as her composure seemed to slip for a second. She seemed to gather herself again and the haughty look appeared once more. Her voice was a sneer when she continued. "You will all die."

Grain... New Machina - Cloister of Science

Amaretto put her hands on her hips. "So let me get this straight then; because of your illness, you saught help and Mother Chime came at your insistence. From there, you promised to help her only if she gave you protection from your own enemies, whom we have heard nothing about as of yet. Am I getting this right so far?"

Mother Chime smiled demurely and nodded her head. "Yes child, you are correct so far."

Amaretto nodded her head once in the affirmative and then said, "So then I take it that the queen is being held together with the power of the inventions of steam?"

Mother Chime's eyes hardened and she spoke with a curt affirmative nod of her head. Amaretto narrowed her eyes at Mother Chime. She knew there was something here that Mother Chime was trying to hide and she was going to reveal it. Actually, Amaretto wanted to do anything but what she was about to do. What she wanted the most however, was to go home and forget that this was ever happening. She didn't want to have been forced on this strange trip. The only reason she agreed to it in the first place... Actually, now that she thought about it, she never really agreed with this whole trip in the first place.

She had a moment where her encounter with La Sorceire flitted through her mind and she realized that she had never actually disagreed to the whole idea in the first place. It made her shudder, but that was not what she was trying to accomplish at the moment. She wanted to go home, and the only way that it was going to happen was if she completed the task which the woman at the Water Mirror had given her.

Amaretto smiled at Mother Chime and then said, "Your power over steam is truly admirable. I am completely fascinated. I must say, how did you create her body?"

Mother chime smiled once more and slowly moved across the floor. As she did so, Amaretto had a flash back to bad cartoon villains. She shook her head as Mother Chime stopped and spoke in her calm voice. "We created the body using higher biological processes and standards."

Amaretto smiled wickedly. "Are you sure you didn't cobble her together like Frankenstein's Bride?"

Katherine scoffed behind her hand and Amaretto could tell that she was trying not to laugh. Amaretto began to slowly move her way towards the bed. Mother Chime however did not look so pleased.

"Are you saying that we had to use a cadaver in order to bring her majesty back to this world?" Mother Chime's voice was a little terse.

Amaretto shook her head. "If that was what it took, and the queen was alright with it, then I am not gainsaying it."

The queen looked a little alarmed at this statement. "We did not agree to occupy another body that belonged to someone else. That's not what you did is it?"

Mother Chime shook her head and tried to plaster her smile back on her face, but Amaretto could tell that the conversation was straining the strange woman. "The body that we gave you was never used by anyone else. It was constructed just for your usage."

The queen pursed her lips for a moment and then nodded her head. "We are pleased then."

Amaretto grinned and looked at Johanna and then said, "How did you manage to transport the queen from one body to another though?"

Mother Chime spoke tersely. "That is a scientific secret that we would prefer not to divulge."

Alice knit her brow and then said, "How were you able to move the animus though? Wouldn't that require a sort of arcane focus?"

Mother chime pursed her lips and then said, "I am going to repeat myself and tell you that I do not do it often and I am saying that we used a biological scientific process."

Alice continued to push. "So then you have found a scientific way to attract the soul and attatche it to another vessel without the usage of the arcane?"

Johanna scoffed. "That would be impossible. You would have to use an arcane device in order to transport the animus into another vessel. In order to capture the animus, a mix between the sciences and the arcane is needed. You would have to use a scientific concept to house the animus while at the same time using an arcane specialty of some sort, thaumaturgy would be necessary most likely in order to move the animus from one vessel to the holding location and then to the new host."

Amaretto was surprised at the basis of knowledge that Johanna had just displayed at that moment. Mother Chime on the other hand seemed a little less impressed. "That is all fine and dandy, but if you do not have the means to use the arcane, then we must find ways to accheive the same result. Thaumaturgical means can mean that they can use a scientific theory to make the same means occur. So that was exactly what we did, while also using alchemical means to make the changes that were necessary."

Amaretto listened halfheartedly while continuing to inch her way towards the bed that was at the other end of the room. Alice and Johanna continued to argue with Mother Chime while the queen and Katherine looked on dispassionately. It was only a short time before Amaretto was able to make it to the bed. The bed itself was made out of a dark mahogany that had a inlays of cherry and teak in it. The large drapery that was laid around the bed was made of several covers of silk. As Amaretto began to pull back the layers of silk on the bed, the queen actually turned around and almost yelled across the small space. "Don't look in there!"

Amaretto jerked back away from the bed, but the damage was already done. As she tried to pull away from the bed, she jerked the silk hangings so hard that they ripped away from the bed, leaving the inside to be exposed to the entire rest of the room. The queen hissed and hurred over to the side of the bed and then began to fuss at the covers on the bed. Under the covers, a small woman with graying hair and tightened skin that showed her age. In Amaretto's opinion, the woman had to be at least in her late sixties. The woman looked like she still partially alive and had hundreds of tubes sticking into her skin. Amaretto had an idea that all the tubes were attached to the queen's new body.

The queen fussed over the body, fluffing pillows and tucking the covers under the woman's folded hands. "Can't have myself catch a cold now can we," she said in a low caring voice.

Amaretto looked at the woman in the bed and said, "Is that your old body?"

The queen nodded her head and then said, "It is indeed our old body. We must take care of it until the transfer of consciousness is complete." In an almost absent minded fashion she placed her hand over that of the old body's folded hands.

At that moment, Amaretto felt a twinge of pity. This was obviously a woman ravaged by illness and Amaretto could also see in the queen's new eyes that she was not just a woman ravaged with problems, but a woman who was frantically clinging to her life and trying any means possible to stay alive. Amaretto was almost reminded of a cancer patient when she looked at the queen's old body.

Katherine stepped over and looked at the old woman who was in the bed and then murmured something under her breath. Amaretto looked to her aunt and Katherine rolled her eyes and then said, "Look at her hands."

Amaretto looked at her hands and noticed that the ravaged body was holding something in her hands. Amaretto looked at eh queen as she stood up again and then in a quiet voice said, "May I?"

The queen thought for a moment and then nodded her head in the affirmative. Amaretto moved forward very slowly and then moved the queen's hands to see what it was that the woman was clutching. There, underneath the woman's hands, was a small gem the size of a robin's egg. It was a a bright ruby red and she slowly lifted it up in her hands and held it up to the light and she turned around to look at Johanna and Alice. Alice's breath caught in her throat audibly and Johanna's eyes widened and her voice sounded raw when she whispered the next words out of her mouth.

"The Stone of Communication."

The queen looked up and confusion crossed her face visibly. At that moment Mother Chime took another step forwards and said, "I must say, I tried to get you all to leave in a means most amenable without you discovering the secret to what was going on here. However, I now have come to the decision that you all are not to be allowed here anymore. I cannot allow you to continue to wander here without any consequences. I am sorry but I cannot allow you to leavce here with the secrets that you know."

Amaretto all but cursed under her breath.

Grain... Cloister of Science...

Alice huffed. “It's the queen. We need to find out why she is here!”

Johanna shook her head. “She still never said why she was here in the Cloister of Science.”

Amaretto looked at Johanna and then shook her aunt by the shoulder. “See? She's starting to show emotion!”

The queen shook her head and then started to chuckle. “If all you wanted to know was why we were here, then we shall tell you. I was here to see Mother Chime and get what she promised to me.”

Amaretto looked a little confused. “Wait, she came here at the insistence of Mother Chime?”

Both Alice and Johanna looked to the woman who was obviously attached to the floor. The queen moved forwards and Amaretto could finally see the hoses and attachments that were there. The queen smiled and then said, “This is the reason that I came here.”

Alice looked at the woman on the bed. “Then who is that?”

The queen smiled. “That was the old me.”

Johanna narrowed her eyes and Katherine stopped looking through her purse. Amaretto took a step forwards towards the bed and then turned around shaking her head. “The old you? What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

Alice suddenly took a sharp intake of breath. “Dear angels in heaven,” she exclaimed. “The queen has been sick for the past three years. It was thought to be an incurable disease. That was when Mother Chime came and the changes started taking place. The reason for all of this has been the culmination of this?” Alice motioned to what appeared to be the queens new body.

The queen smiled and then put her hands on her hips. She quickly turned a couple of times, showing off her new body. “Mother Chime came with her scientists and with a plan as well.”

Amaretto narrowed her eyes. “This plan was to give you another body?”

A melodic voice answered her question at that moment. “Why yes it was. I never thought it would happen this quickly though.”

Everyone in the room quickly turned around and looked to see who it was that was speaking. A woman sashayed into the room. She was dressed in a long flowing blue gown of muslin and seemed to cling to her frame. Her eyes were a very dark shade of gray that seemed to encompass the whole of her socket. Her skin was a pale shade of off-white, that had a bluish tint to it as well. Her lips had been curved into a rather disarming smile and cunning eyes.

Katherine smiled slightly and then curtsied. “Mother Chime I take it then?”

The woman nodded her head. “Indeed you would have it correct then madam.”

Katherine's smile got larger and then her silver chain was out once more and her eyes were a little wild when she screamed again, “The power of Mazda compels you!”

Mother Chime raised an eyebrow. “Using Babylonian spells will not make me go away.”

Katherine huffed and then threw the Mazda medallion back into her purse. “You can't say I didn't try.”

Amaretto huffed. “Using a car to try to exorcise something is not going to happen.”

Katherine shrugged. “I tried. I have no idea now.”

Alice had wide eyes as she stared at Mother Chime. “You are the infamous Mother Chime?”

The woman made a slight bow. “That is indeed what it is. It is a pleasure to make the acquaintance of famous spiritualists Alice Crowly and Johanna Dee.”

Johanna stiffened at the usage of her name. Alice simply stood there with her mouth hanging open. She then composed herself and spoke. “You know of us?”

“Why yes. I make it a point to know of those who stand against me, even if I have done nothing to gain your ire.” Mother Chime continued to smile and Amaretto wanted to slap the smile off of the woman. There was something about her that made her skin crawl.

Johanna suddenly sputtered and her face seemed to contort with emotion and then her deadpan voice seemed to gain an octave. “Gained our ire? You burned our house down! You stole from us!”

Amaretto tugged at her aunt's arm and whispered to her excitedly. “See? I told you! That means that the Stone of Communication has to be near by. It’s the only way that her emotion could be showing though at this time.”

Katherine narrowed her eyes and made a slight motion around the room with her hand. “And where do you think that it would be hidden? There seems to be no place for them to keep it.”

Amaretto scanned the room that they were in and then looked to where the queen was standing. She slowly made as if to look and saw that the floor had a small hole where the wires and the hoses that were attached to the queen seemed to sink under the floor. As she continued to look around, she looked and saw that the wires seemed to go towards the bed that was on the other side of the room. Amaretto stared at the wires for a moment and then turned back to look at the queen.

Amaretto spoke in a soft voice, “What perchance are the wires and hoses for?”

At this, the the queen seemed to be rather pleased and then said, “This is actually a partial gift to me. It was thanks to Mother Chime herself.”

Amaretto frowned. “Don't you mean Grandmother Chime?”

Mother Chime smiled and then said, “That was the late Mistress of Sciences. I am the second to have that name.”

Amaretto nodded and then said, “I do not think that you have the same accent as the others.”

Mother Chime made her slight smile once more and then said, “You would be correct in that. I am not necessarily from the Empire, but that does not mean that I cannot be a citizen of it.”

Katherine smirked and said, “We never said you couldn't be a part of it, merely that you were not to begin with.” As she said that, Mother Chime's eyes seemed to darken for a moment and then lightened once more.

“There is nothing that cannot gainsay your logic, but I think that if anyone can say weather or not I am beholden to the empire, I think that the queen is the one who has that power.” Mother Chime turned and made a motion with her hand towards the queen. Amaretto noticed that around the woman's wrist, a strange silver white bracelet was wrapped twice. From the bracelet, what appeared to be small chains were wrapped around her waist. A closer look revealed them to be small hoses that were attached just like the queen had on her shoulders.

Amaretto elbowed her aunt and pointed them out to her. Katherine's eyes narrowed and she then said, “There is no way that this is all being powered by steam. Something else has to be powering this conversion that is going on.”

Amaretto grinned. “Something like the Stone?”

Katherine nodded. “I think you are right. I think that the Stone is somewhere here.”

At this time, Alice spoke in a concerned tone. “If in fact you are the queen, then what was it that Mother Chime offered to you?”

The queen smiled. “She gave me a new body.” The queen's tone was matter of fact and Amaretto almost choked at what the queen said.

Alice blinked. “She gave you a new body?”

The queen nodded her head. “In exchange for protection, she offered to help cure the sickness that was ailing my body. In order to do so, she and all of her scientists helped to create this new body and have placed my consciousness into this new construct.”

Alice blinked and looked like she was about to pass out. Amaretto felt sorry for her. It was not every day that one was told that body swapping was supposed to happen.

Grain... The Second Great British Empire - Cloister of Science

The woman looked abruptly surprised at Katherine shaking the symbol i0n front of her. She seemed to be a little surprised also at the fact that there were several other women in her room at that same moment. The woman pulled her back a little straighter and then in a commanding voice said, "Who precisely are you to come bargain into here at this time?"

Amaretto looked at the woman and noted that while her hair was short and bobbed on the back with tight curls, a small tiara had been placed on her head and sat slightly askew. Checking over the woman, Amaretto was surprised at the look of her dress. The dress had long red sleeves that were topped with a puff of fabric surrounding the arm in a bell shaped manner and within them they was wrapped around the woman's shoulder a large piece of bronzed metal. The metal seemed almost fused with the woman's skin, but Amaretto simply assumed that it was a rather tight fit. The rest of the woman's dress was a low cut bodice wrapped within a long corset of black. The corset had long laces that tied her waist into a perfect vee before the dress, which was made of a royal purple flowed down the front in a traditional spill of what appeared to be velvet.

The woman put gloved hands on her hips and said, "I'm waiting for your answer good women."

Katherine bowed rather graciously and then said, "Pardon us good lady, but we were actually looking for a room in which a dear friend of ours was supposed to be teaching us fighting."

The woman crossed her arms and then in a very dry voice said, "I sincerely doubt that."

Katherine looked taken aback and then placed a hand on her chest. "Why I very much think that you have mistaken us for someone else?"

The woman placed her hands on her hips and Amaretto thought that she saw something trailing from the woman's arms. The woman however took a step back and then looked around and said, "I think that I am not mistaken in what I am thinking at this moment."

Katherine shook a finger at the woman. "I think that you would be."

"You come into my room," the woman began, "As well holding weapons when you come through the door. You then seem to have gotten the lost room. We are not amused."

Amaretto blinked. "Did you just say what I think you did?"

Alice lowered her guns. "Your majesty?"

The woman nodded her head and then looked down her nose. "If you must know, I am indeed Her Majesty Vitorianna Alexis, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of Indus."

Amaretto blinked. She turned to her aunt "You mean that this woman is the queen?"

Katherine shrugged. "It could very well be."

The woman in front of them said, "I am also known as Vitorianna Alexis Regina et Imperatrix."

Amaretto raised her hand in disbelief as if to silence the woman. "You mean that this woman right here is the Queen of England,"

The woman narrowed her eyes and in a short tempered voice said, "That is the Empire of New Machina."

Amaretto rolled her eyes and then continued speaking. "So whatever, this woman is Queen, and we were supposed to find the queen and protect her. However, we find the queen standing here and looking fine. What are we doing in here again?"

The queen's eyebrows knit together as Katherine shook a finger at Amaretto. "Don't you have even the slightest amount of respect Amaretto?" Her voice was obviously exasperated and her face looked stern.

Amaretto threw her hands up in the air and then gripped the sides of her dress and pulled them to the sides slightly as she took a bow from the waist and said, "Your Majesty, forgive me. I did not think that we would be bumping into you."

Almost as soon as Amaretto bowed, the queen made a face. "That was a little vulgar. Who taught you to curtsy and show respect?"

Amaretto looked at the queen and then said a little sourly, "No one did. I don't normally make it a point to meet with the queen of Eng- I mean New Machina."

"Did you grow up as a heathen then?" The queen sneered at Amaretto. Amaretto could feel her eye twitch.

Alice and Johanna had both risen from where they had curtsied and Johanna had taken a step forward. She looked at the queen and then said, "Alice, I have a question."

Alice was smoothing out her dress and had put her guns away rather quickly. "Listen I know we are here after the Stone, but perhaps we should pause in our search if only to extract ourselves from this situation."

Katherine nodded her agreement. "It is indeed a situation, trying to find a stone and winding up with a rather awkward situation is hardly what we needed at this moment."

Amaretto frowned and looked back at Johanna who seemed almost for a moment as if she had a flitting expression across her face.The expression vanished almost as soon as Amaretto thought she saw it though, but it was enough for her to confirm that the Stone of Communication was indeed nearby. Amaretto turned to the other woman whom they had walked in on and then said, "So you're the queen?"

The woman nodded her head rather imperiously and then said, "Yes I am."

"So then why are you here instead of in the palace?" Amaretto put her hands on her hips as she spoke.

Johanna stared at the woman and then suddenly said, "You are lying."

Everyone in the room suddenly stopped breathing.

Amaretto turned around and then said, "What do you mean?"

Katherine pursed her lips and then said quietly to Amaretto, "I can see what she is saying, however, I would have thought that she would have had a little more tact."

The woman standing in front of them who had identified herself as the queen narrowed her eyes and then stared at Johanna for what seemed to take forever. She then crossed her arms and leaned back only a slight bit and said, "What makes you say that I am not the queen?"

Johanna pointed towards the bed first and then to the floor around the woman's dress. "The signs all point to you not being the queen," was all Johanna said at first.

Alice moved forwards. "What signs are those?"

Johanna pointed towards the floor again. "If you note very carefully. you can actually see the piping that is coming out of he hole in the floor where she is standing and how the hoses connect to the small shoulder things she has on. They are also connected to the floor as well as the machines that are connected to the woman who is also on the bed."

Katherine looked towards the bed and nodded her head. "Oh my, it appears that we have indeed gotten ourselves into something that seems to be a little over our heads. I vote that we just simply leave now."

Amaretto grabbed her aunt's arm and whispered hurriedly. "The stone is in here though! You can see that because animation is coming back to Johanna!"

"Animation?"

"She's starting to show emotions again. Didn't Alice say that the closer we got to the stone, the more emotion that Johanna would show?"

Katherine quirked her eyebrow. "I don't remember her saying that."

Amaretto shook her head and then said, "I just inferred it form all the things that she had said originally. There has to be something to be said for the fact that all these facts will eventually connect together right?"

Katherine pulled up her bag and began to rummage around for something. In the meantime, Alice was arguing with Johanna.

Grain: New Machina; Second Great British Empire - Cloister of Science...

The doors were covered in gilt and stood tall and imposing in front of the women. The dark maple monstrosity in front of them made Amaretto shiver as she inspected them. Carvings of all kinds were displayed in the wood, most of them were strange symbols that Amaretto didn't understand. As she stared at the door she had a thought that seemed a little gruesome. She turned to her aunt.

“So what we are looking for is behind that door correct?”

Katherine turned from looking at the door to look at Johanna. Johanna made a mute nod. Katherine turned back to her god-daughter and shook her head in the affirmative as well. “That would seem to be the case.”

Amaretto frowned and then said, “What if there is a squad of goons on the other side of the door?”

Katherine raised an eyebrow. “A squad of goons?”

Amaretto nodded her head emphatically. “Yes, what if there was another set of those IronMen that we have been dealing with this whole time? What if they are waiting just inside the doors.”

Alice pointed her gun at the door. “You have your ring and I have my guns. I think we would be able to handle them.”

Amaretto shook her head. “No, that's not what I mean. What if there are more than what we can handle? What if we try to shoot our way in and there are just simply too many of them and they overwhelm us? What do we do then?”

Alice furrowed her eyebrows and then said, “Are you trying to think of a doomsday plan for all of us love? I mean, it sounds more like you are trying to prevent us from going thorough the door. If the Stone of Communication is on the other side of this door, we should be busting it down in order to make sure that we get what it is that we want.”

Amaretto shrugged. “I'm just saying, I don't really want to die at this moment in time.”

Alice was about to say something when Johanna placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “She is on strange soil, helping us do a strange deed, in strange times. It is no wonder that she would be concerned for herself and her aunt.”

Katherine smirked and started rooting around in her purse. “I might have something that will give us the upper hand, just let me...” She continued to root around her purse until finally she said, “I have it!” She looked at the others around her with a maniacal grin. “Just open the door and I will have at them. No need to worry, this is fool-proof.” Katherine still had her hand in her purse.

Amaretto pointed to the purse. “What are you hiding?”

“I'm not hiding anything,” her aunt said a little hurt. “I just think that the element of surprise will work better. This way, if they are truly watching us, which I doubt that they are, then I want what I have left to be a surprise.:

Amaretto rolled her eyes. “If that's what you think it is, then I won't stop you at all. Go ahead and just do it then.”

Katherine took a deep breath and then nodded her head. “All right then, open the doors.”

Alice took both of her pistols and aimed them at the door. Amaretto held up her ring just a little below her chest. Her breath was a little ragged from having to take out so many of the IronMen, but she was sure that her aunt would protect her. As if for a secondary precaution, she quickly thought in the back of her head, “Tempus!”

At first, it seemed as if he was reluctant with her and was not about to answer, but with some mental probing and poking, he eventually responded.

“What do you need then?” Tempus' voice was not cheery, but it was not overly welcome either.

“Are we going to survive this then?”

Tempus snorted. “What kind of question is that?”

Amaretto grumbled in the back of her head. “I need to know if I am going to survive this whole ordeal.”

Tempus paused for a minute before he answered. “I will say that there is no need to worry as you are not trying to kill yourself. As to how the natives shall react to you, you should be fine.”

“Did you just say that because I am no suicidal that...”

“Really, the IronMen are not all that bad, they just have no heart. If you find the Stone of Communication, then you have the first coordinate and we can move onto the next world.”

“So there is still stuff to do after all of this?”

“I told you that we need three,” began Tempus in a huff.

Amaretto cut him off. “I think Johanna is going to open the door, I will get back to you when I get the chance.” She nodded to Johanna who motioned Katherine into place, Katherine, with her hand still in her purse, moved forward to the door and then looked back at Alice. Alice once again positioned herself behind the door and then aimed her guns onto either side of Katherine.

With a mighty shove, Johanna swung the doors open and all four women charged into the room, Amaretto behind the other three with her hand extended so that she could use the ring if needed. Katherine charged into the room, letting a battle cry ululate through the room with a ferocity of an Amazon. She charged forwards into the face of a woman who was standing there with a look of surprise, and pulled her hand out from within the purse. Grasped firmly in her hands was a long silver chain, at the end of which a large medallion was hanging. It appeared to be made out of silver and when Amaretto got a better look at it, she thought it looked oddly like a seagull in the middle of a box.

Katherine shook the medallion at the strange woman and then screamed at the top of her lungs in her most ferocious and commanding voice that she could muster, “'Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness,will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.' Acts 13: 9-11.”

Amaretto was shocked. She had never heard anyone quote the bible before, but this was a little bit of a guilty pleasure for her as well. The woman who her aunt was standing in front of looked a little offended, as as she did nothing, Katherine shook the strange medallion again and began speaking at the top of her lungs again.

“I command you, unclean spirit, whoever you are, along with all your minions now attacking this servant, by the mysteries of the incarnation, passion, resurrection, and ascension, by the descent of the Holy Spirit, for judgment, that you tell me by some sign your name, and the day and hour of your departure. I command you, moreover, to obey me to the letter, I who am a minister despite my unworthiness; nor shall you be emboldened to harm in any way this creature or the bystanders, or any of their possessions!”

The woman gave Katherine a strange look and as she did so, Amaretto quickly looked around the room. There seemed to be a large poster bed across the room that was covered in gauze, and several sitting chairs, a small table and a large roaring fire. Other than that, there appeared to be nothing else in this room, which Amaretto thought looked more like a rather large bedroom with parlor than an evil torture chamber. She had almost wished for the evil villain's chamber for a minute there.

The woman looked like she was about to say something when Katherine shook her charm once more and said, “Silence Deamon!” The woman seemed taken aback and put a hand on her chest and Amaretto looked once again at the symbol that her aunt had in her hand. She squinted her eyes in thought for a moment and then it suddenly popped into her head.

“Wait a minute, that's,” Amaretto started when her Katherine cut her off with a large bellow.

“The power of Mazda compel thee!”

Amaretto felt like she wanted to smack herself in the forehead.